I’m no landscaper, but the first two things that popped into my mind were: Leave it all grass. Cut out the sod in a triangular-ish shape around those three trees and mulch there.
My vote is for #2. If access will prevent you from mowing around them, I think a triangular mulch “island “ would look better than individual mulch circles around each tree.
After trying a wide variety, I have a few core recipes I use when I make soap. I threw a wrench in it by adding a fragrance oil on this last batch. This is the worst screw up so far. Fragrance oils can speed up trace and cause overheating. This is just fucked.
I started picking rocks as a last step before finally getting these wildflower seeds planted. I got a little less than a third in and suddenly remembered what an absolute shitty task that is, and the worst in all of agriculture. So fuck it, they're wildflowers, they should be able to handle some rocks. As @Nettdata mentioned in jest a while back, yeah, this looked really good on paper. The execution has been a lot of man hours. Damn bugs better appreciate it.
I wish you luck, dude… succeed where I failed. I’ve spent $250 over 4 years trying to get a wildflower patch going, and have not come close to succeeding.
We got a live one! Momma was sitting on 4 good eggs. This one might just be a little early with the others taking another day or two. Monday would be 28 days.
Our son's girlfriends, and my wife to a degree, mention having ducks around here every once in a while. Meanwhile, as the person who cares for and cleans up after the animals, I've decided we're not having any more animals. The goats are 6 years old, so they have some time to go but once they're gone, we'll just have a few laying hens. That's it. No more. And then I think about ducks waddling around the yard. But of course we have a dog so that wouldn't work at all. Which is good, because otherise I'd have probably bought some damned ducks by now.
I love my ducks but they are a lot of daily work. There is duck drama lately with the drake so he's in jail, and their area is my composting operation which means lots of turning. Their water is used to water and fertilize the garden but the pump gets clogged and I have to use a pool net to get the solids off the bottom sometimes. To me, the whole deal adds joy and purpose to my life. I love being in the garden, turning compost for the duck to eat worms. I actually felt a little rudderless visiting in Alabama when I didn't have to care for them, it was kind of odd. My kid is starting to get really involved with them and that is so beautiful and special to me too. But you don't get to take a break from it. It's constant work and ducks create a joyful mess wherever they go. Here @walt, here's some pictures to live vicariously through me. I love sitting out there watching them duck around.
I think I have ducks, but they’re pretty well self help. There’s a nesting pair that are trying to bed down in the mulch of my front bed. The 2 cats and dog are making that difficult.
@walt Hey, buddy, what's your knowledge on goats and japanese maple tree leaves? I can find info supporting both that they are toxic and that they'll be fine, and some says it's only wilted or dry leaves. He didn't eat much, probably a few ounces by weight. The fucker knocked a picket out of the deck railing and got in the fenced area where all our ornamental plants are. I've screwed all the pickets in, they were nailed, so he can't push one out again.
I honestly don’t know, so I Googled it and don’t see anything saying Japanese Maple is toxic to goats. If it was only a tiny bit I wouldn’t worry too much. ( Easy for me to say, I know. ) For as hardy as they can be, goats are also weird ass animals as far as what they can and can’t eat.
https://poisonousplants.ansci.cornell.edu/comlist.html This is the list our vet said to go by, though it's not goat specific. I definitely read several other places that some maples are toxic to them.
My friend in her 30s dropped one 3x5mm kidney stone and had another in her kidney that hasn't moved and could either dissolve or drop at some point. I definitely searched this thread for that goat treatment....
Lol. I wish I had space for goats. This weekend I'm rendering beef fat for tallow. Tallow is a good soap making oil and some people seek out tallow products. It's very good for your skin. I got my first batch of 3 full gallon ziplocks this week and I should have more of the same a couple times a month. I found a lady who owns and operates a cafe nearby who hates to waste the fat trimmings off all the beef she cooks, and would rather gift it to me. Score! I am doing this in an 8qt instant pot. Highly recommend doing it this way, the smell is almost nothing except when I open it up and stir it around. I am working on my last gallon Ziploc of fat now. I have to clean it next but looks like I'll have about 2 gallons of product. That ain't bad!
Still not done with the tallow but I am progressing. Looks like I'll have about a gallon of tallow when I'm finished. I used the wet method and a lot of foulness is contained in that water at the bottom. I turned the jars so I can pour it off and scrape it off the tallow once everything cools. I plan to use the solids to make bird suet and dog treats.
Every one of our three goats has tried to die on me in the six years that I’ve had them. The latest problem, I noticed one of them dragging his front hoof slightly. They play rough so we figured he twisted it and we’d watch him. After a couple days it seemed to improve. Until yesterday when unnoticed his stance was wrong and he was weak in the hindquarters. I called the vet ( it’s always on the weekend when it’s $150 just for her to pull in the driveway for an emergency call ) and she had an idea what the issue was, but told me to send a couple videos. She texted me to say the videos confirmed her suspicions, which was deer worms. The transmission process is fricking weird, and it involves slugs or snails picking up the worms eggs from deer droppings and then somehow the goat ingests them. The worms end up in the spinal column, causing neurological defect and eventually paralysis. I’m hopeful we caught this infection in time, and I’m cautiously optimistic. Last night I had to pick him up and carry him into the barn, today he’s able to get in and out on his own. He’s on a regimen of anti-wormer and steroid injections and we’ll assess his condition. As long as he’s able to function without too much defect, he’s good to go. If not, we’ll have to out him down. ( I think his prognosis’s is better than yesterday though. ) It’s always something with these animals. At least the vet bill wasn’t too bad this time.
goats, deer, and human toddlers are the only three species I've seen that actively try to get themselves killed on a daily basis